


An Excellent Quality

by OldShrewsburyian



Category: The Hour (TV)
Genre: 1950s, Bisexual Female Character, F/F, Ficlet, Flirting, Friendship/Love, Kissing, London, POV Female Character, Pre-Canon, Romantic Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-14
Updated: 2019-03-14
Packaged: 2019-11-17 20:31:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18105938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OldShrewsburyian/pseuds/OldShrewsburyian
Summary: Bel is distressed, and Lix distracts her."Distraction arises from an excellent quality of the understanding, which allows the ideas to strike against, or reawaken one another. It is the opposite of that stupor of attention, which merely rests on, or recycles, the same idea." -- Diderot,Encyclopédie





	An Excellent Quality

**Author's Note:**

> From a prompt from @lucyemers: Lix and Bel, a stolen kiss.

Friday evening, the London fog thick outside, and the cigarette smoke of the week hanging in the stale air within: it’s an all too familiar atmosphere. Lix reviews her photographs discontentedly. School prize-giving. The London docks. Debutantes at the races, wound more tightly than the nervous thoroughbreds. There are stories to be told there — good stories — but she knows that there’s no interest in telling them. Sometimes she wonders if she’s losing her touch for seeing things with the necessary clarity. _Dust on the lens_. 

A stifled curse from Bel draws her out of her reverie. A welcome distraction, but this, too, has a depressing sort of inevitability. She is resplendent, poor Bel, in emerald, her lips painted coral and bitten red, her fingers toying with her bracelet, her eyes on the clock. 

“Time to cut your losses, darling,” suggests Lix. The younger woman dashes a hand across her forehead. She does not quite succeed in flattening the stray lock of hair, or hiding the fact that there are tears in her eyes.

“Yes,” says Bel, and immediately corrects herself: “Probably. He said he might be late.” 

Lix sighs, and gets up from her desk. “In that case, he’s a greater coward than I took him for.” Bel meets her eyes, and there is anger sparking in them now. “It’s your own business, of course,” says Lix. “But I’d suggest looking out for someone with a more daring taste in ties.”

Bel half-laughs, startled. “Ties?”

“Mm.” Lix smoothes the golden hair back. After a moment’s hesitation, she continues to run her hand through its layered waves. “A little less conventional. A little less likely to run back to the wife in Fulham without even a passionate last night.”

Bel smiles shakily, leans forward, her lips a little parted. “You really think so?”

“It’s not a bad idea,” says Lix gently. “Nor is this.” And she braces one hand on Bel’s ancient desk, and leans forward, and kisses her. Bel’s response is immediate; only after the first moment does she remember to be surprised.

“Lix.”

“Yes, darling?”

“Do you think — this isn’t — I mean, it’s hardly _suitable_.”

Lix chuckles, low and amused, and kisses her again — briefer, but harder, teasing, promising. “Neither are your men, dearest. And I’m far less likely to break your heart.”

“Good,” breathes Bel against her mouth. “Take me somewhere and buy me a drink.”


End file.
